The thing about wool soakers is that once you start making them, you SIMPLY-CAN’T-STOP!

Perhaps you already read my post from last year that discussed my first attempts (successful but not without minor errors) at sewing wool soakers from old sweaters. I received several nice comments – thank you!

If any of you have made soakers from old sweaters, you know a big part of the fun is hitting the local thrift stores and hunting for suitable sweaters. I tell you, there is nothing more satisfying than finding a 100% cashmere sweater in a great colour/pattern on sale for $1.50. It’s giving me chills just thinking about it.

The problem is, well, the search becomes a bit of an addiction and the next thing you know, you’ve got a huge trunk filled with sweaters. So, after my first attempts, I went on to make a few more soakers and longies. Check these out…

Cashmere, double cashmere, and virgin wool. Only the BEST for my wee baby's bottom!

Trust me when I say that the brown pair in the middle is a dream. Double cashmere. So soft you just want to hold them against your face and keep them there. So warm there’s no way a baby could be cold.

So yeah, I kept sewing up the little beauties. But then I got the knitting bug again. So my sewing machine went away (along with a MOUNTAIN of felted sweater scraps) and the needles came out.

I started knitting a couple of years ago. I hadn’t knit since Brownies (in the mid 1970’s – YIKES!) so I thought I’d start with something simple like, say, socks. OK, socks are not simple. But I figured if I could knit a sock, I could knit anything. So I knit socks. Big, small, and Christmas stockings. Then I moved on to mittens. And then… soakers.

INTERLUDE: If you’re new (or old) to knitting and haven’t yet discovered the wonderful world of Ravelry.com, you are in for one sweet treat. Thousands of free patterns. And if you need any help with knitting, here’s a shout out to all the friendly knitters who have so graciously uploaded videos to Youtube. If there’s a technique you need/want to learn, guaranteed someone has posted a very good video.

Where was I? Oh yes, knitting soakers. I managed to get a couple done before Remy was born in July (he’s now 8 months old! I’m REALLY far behind my posts). Soft, soft, soft virgin wool.

And then my mom knit this adorable pair of longies… I’m not typically a “yellow” person but c’mon, these are gorgeous!

How can you not love those?

I hadn’t used wool soakers on our first son until he was almost 2 but Remy was due in the heat of the summer and I wanted something breathable for him. All the ones I made – knitted and sewn from felted sweaters – were great. The sewn ones gave a nice tight and trim fit and the knit ones just looked plain old sweet.

INTERLUDE: When summer was over, I started thinking about winter knits and Halloween and just HAD to make this. Tell me this isn’t the cutest…

As the months went by, we discovered Remy was a VERY HEAVY WETTER. So that called for, what I’m referring to as, The Big Ass Night-time Diaper Soaker. I made this thing HUGE, with ribbing so it would stretch over his Big Ass Night-time Diaper. I also used 2 strands of yarn to make it super absorbent. This is NOT the soaker you want to wear around town but it works like a charm, all night long!

This is my own secret recipe of three separate patterns. Me being me, I neglected to make notes as I went along so there will be no duplicating this one.

Recently I joined an on-line group for wool soakers. Great bunch of ladies with a LOT of good tips. Someday, when I get the time, I’ll summarize what I’ve learned. But until then, I’ll just keep knitting…

4 Responses to Wool Soakers Part 2 – Knit and Made from Old Sweaters

Love to know your tops. Place. To upcycle a.d then attempt to crochet. Need yo keep looking to get good combos for sweaters used to upcycle. Rashes leading.g me to wool from pockets. Little man is a Nelly sleeper and no air flow in front with teething is making him rash. Praying Daddy will ditch sposies after I prove its better for rash and baby. Wish I had more time to thrift shop. Sew organic fitted and upcycled woollies , and learn crochet.

Hi Shannon – where are you writing from? I’m in Canada. I’ve found the absolute best place to get sweaters is at Church Sales. There’s usually a really good selection at bargain prices and no one else seems to want them. Otherwise, I’ve put myself on the mailing list for ValueVillage and a few other thrift shops so I get advance warning of sales on sweaters. Then I make sure I”m there when they open on that day. I also continuously remind my friends/family that I’ll be happy to take any old wool sweaters off their hands. I’ve gotten a number of really nice ones that way.

I prefer the knitted ones at night (I don’t crochet). I can make them nice and stretchy to fit over a mega-diaper. They’re easy to make and I don’t feel guilty watching TV if I’m knitting. If there’s someone in your family that knits, give them a ball of yarn and direct them to ravelry.com for patterns – they’ll have a soaker for you in no time.